I read over at Powerline about how the Netherlands has euthanized 4 babies born with severe handicaps. This saddens me a great deal. I work with handicapped children, and when given proper medical and nursing care, these kids are the happiest in kids in the world. Sure, they entail a lot of work and often get sick. They have care needs that are astronomical. They are a burden to their families and to society. But they are human beings, and therefore deserve the best care. Many of the kids I work with were very ill when they were born, some being on life support systems for weeks and months. As the mature, they tend to get better and not need such high medical treatments. I have personally seen these handicapped children grow up into adults who can work, who can vote, who can participate in society. Its a lot of work. Parents have to be committed to their disabled kids and must advocate for them.

It doesn’t shock me that the Netherlands- who claim to be poles apart with America when it comes to morals and high standards-would allow such things to occur. This is not about being merciful. This is about caving in to the laziness of a society that wishes not to be burdened with the care of handicapped people. Lazy parents, doctors who would rather not have such patients on their caseloads…The doctors of all people KNOW how far a handicapped child can go in today’s world.

Here’s some info:

The Groningen Protocol, as the hospital’s guidelines have come to be known, would create a legal framework for permitting doctors to actively end the life of newborns deemed to be in similar pain from incurable disease or extreme deformities.

The guideline says euthanasia is acceptable when the child’s medical team and independent doctors agree the pain cannot be eased and there is no prospect for improvement, and when parents think it’s best.

Examples include extremely premature births, where children suffer brain damage from bleeding and convulsions; and diseases where a child could only survive on life support for the rest of its life, such as severe cases of spina bifida and epidermosis bullosa, a rare blistering illness.

I have worked with kids with spina bifida; I work with kids who have seizure disorders; and I work with a child with the bullosa disease. They are all manageable and with proper treatment, these kids can grow into happy adults who can advocate for themselves. They will need lots of supports and lots of special equipment, but they can do it.

Another view onn this, by Hugh Hewit:

This is either a low point, or a point of no return. The establishment of “independent committees” to dispatch non-consenting humans is nothing but a death penalty committee for innocents. Once begun, it is impossible–simply impossible–to limit the concept with any bright line. Abortion, of course, has always been limited by the physical act of birth, and once out of the womb, only the most extreme “reproductive rights” advocates have argued that the baby’s natural right to live can be compromised by the mother. But now the Netherlands has gone farther–much, much farther. If the “severely retarded” may be killed upon appropriate motion, second, debate, and majority vote, why not the moderately retarded? Why not the mildly retarded? Why not, in fact, anyone the “independent committee” deems as usefully dispatched.